Gibbs who has been chasing a ride in the the 450 class for the past couple of years, had a disastrous end to his 2012 racing campaign when he was involved in a big crash at the final round of the 2012 MX Nationals at Coolum.
Despite missing the 2012 Australian SX Series, Rob Twyerould and KTM Australia seen enough form the South Australian to take him on board for 2013 as the teams up and coming development rider.
"I am really excited to do this deal with KTM" told fullnoise.com.au.. "I have been wanting to race a 450 for a couple of years now.
"I had been talking to Rob Twyerould a little bit he let me know they were putting together a new team and taking the team back in house. They were after an established rider in the 450 class and then a up and coming rider in the class, which is where I come in.
"I started talking to Rob and some of the new team at Coolum and then kept in touch with a few text messages over the coming weeks. He let me know that they had an opportunity for me, so I went down and seen the guys and I am really excited to get the deal done and get on a big bike," the Mount Gambier born rider explained.
The KTM team look to be taking a different approach to racing in 2013, with the teams factory riders hitting local race tracks, being encouraged to race state title events which Gibbs is a big fan of.
Gibbs is re-locating back to Queensland for 2013 and is aiming to race the Sunny State series and also has plans to head with the team to New Zealand early in the new year.
"The way the team is talking, they want to do a lot of racing in 2013, they want to get the KTM brand out there and do a lot of state title racing as well as the nationals and really promote KTM." Gibbs explained
"We will be looking to do a lot of racing in Queensland with the Sunny states and we will head over to New Zealand at the beginning of next year to do the New Zealand Nationals and also the Woodville GP.
"We are going to be flat out racing, I love racing and with tracks getting harder and harder to find these days and the more you race the less time you need to spend looking for practice tracks, which is good for me." he added.
The 2009 and 2010 National Pro Lites motocross runner up spend his first day back riding yesterday, getting acquainted with his 2013 KTM 450 SX-F after spending the last four and a half months working his way back from injury.
"I Rode Yesterday for the first time, was a little rusty to start but am getting there." Gibbs concluded.
Though not officially announced Photos on social networking pages suggest, Gibbs will be joined on the new look KTM outfit by 2012 National MX1 runner up Todd Waters.
Top Image: Kirk Gibbs aboard his 2013 KTM 450 SX-F.
Credit: Kirk Gibbs Fan Facebook page 
